I don’t know whether it’s an age thing or not but the older I get, the more I feel the need to “give something back”.

What that means, I’m not quite sure but I find myself drawn towards charities and happily dive into anything that involves helping a cause.

I’m well aware that, in common with the majority of Brits, we are a charitable nation – I, for one, cannot pass a volunteer shaking a charity box in the high street or outside the supermarket without rummaging through my purse to empty all my spare change into it.

I give to various charities on a monthly basis via standing orders and yet I still feel as if I could do more, after all, my monthly donations whilst regular, are not massive amounts of money.  Donating cash is rather an easy option and, self indulgent though it sounds, is not actually that satisfying!

When I found out about #knitforwinter campaign organised by Sunrise Senior Living, I jumped at the chance to get involved. Just look at this shocking statistic: –

Each winter, 1 older person dies needlessly every 7 minutes from the cold – that’s 200 deaths a day that could be prevented.

Image courtesy of Age UK

Sunrise Senior Living have got together with a community of volunteer knitters who knit hats, gloves and scarves which are donated to age charities. These charities will take the donations and sell them in their stores to raise money to deal with issues such as the elderly not being able to afford to put on their heating in the cold.

Although this Winter is nearing an end, they are looking for more willing knitters to join in and give a head start to next Winter’s campaign.

This is how it works.

Visit the Knit For Winter campaign page and let them know you would like to offer your knitting skills.

You get to choose exactly what you would prefer to knit according to your level of expertise (or not, as the case may be!). There are projects for very basic scarves in garter stitch suitable for beginners, through to more complicated infinity cowls in a fancy Brioche stitch for the more experienced knitter.

I settled on a simple bobble hat pattern which promised to be quick to whip up in super chunky yarn, but interesting enough to not get bored whilst making it.

The really clever part is that you are sent absolutely everything you will need to complete the project, including needles, so you don’t have to worry about anything other than the knitting itself.

Return postage is also included – you just return the entire kit with your finished item in the same box it arrived in.

Simple.

My yarn was a lovely shade of maroon and the needles were a large 9mm. I found the plastic a little sticky for the acrylic yarn to begin with as I personally am used to knitting on metal needles, but can understand that they must be a lot cheaper to send out so it was an insignificant inconvenience really.

The hat knitted up in a couple of evening sessions spent catching up on a few of the many re-runs of “Poirot” that have been languishing on our Sky hard drive for a while now.

Instructions are given to make the pom pom bobble the traditional way, with two card circles.  However, I have this handy little gadget that is vastly quicker and simple to use and made the perfect sized pom pom suggested by the pattern.

I thought I’d better model the hat to give you an idea of what it looks like on…..

The large band of ribbing turn-up makes a cosy double layer of snugness for extra warmth.

Oops, the centre back seam could have been a little neater but hopefully the shaping detail of the crown draws the eye away successfully!

So come on, hop on over to Sunrise and give a little something back yourself – it doesn’t cost anything but your time and you can do something constructive to help whilst watching Strictly on a Saturday night!